


Shifting Perspective

by nyausgris



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: F/F, camping kinda, honestly i dont know exactly what else to tag this as, indiana jones type adventure, shifting labyrinth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22803370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyausgris/pseuds/nyausgris
Summary: Written for the 2020 Femslash February ExchangeDeviation from the norm is an odd, but welcome change sometimes. Also, sometimes change involves labyrinths that change and try to crush you.
Relationships: Anode/Lug (Transformers)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Shifting Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for LushSpecimen who asked for lugnodes and some Indiana Jones-esque adventure, and while I haven't watched an Indiana Jones movie in years and am not great at writing action, I hope I did the basic idea justice.

Most of the time, Lug and Anode’s adventures were of the ‘steal a thing and try not to die’ variety. Get information about some cool thing that's Definitely worth a lot of shanix, try to steal said thing, successfully steal said thing but almost die in the process, be glad they're alive, rinse and repeat.

However, there were occasionally outliers to this pattern

Anode had taken a job offer from a woman she had met in a bar on some lesser known planet. The woman, who was named something Anode had now forgotten, hadn’t asked her to _steal_ anything, but rather return something _she_ had stolen instead. Having apparently stolen a small relic from a long abandoned planet, the woman had offered Anode and Lug a large amount of shanix to do her a favour and return the thing to where it belonged. She had even been kind enough to give instructions.

The planet in question was peaceful and mostly uninhabited, which was weird within itself considering their track record. Taking a look at their surroundings once they had landed, it ended up even weirder. The planet’s rocky landscape was cut into perfect geometric shapes, creating perfectly even inclines, declines, floors and ceilings in what seemed to be a _natural_ labyrinth.

A natural labyrinth that took… a surprising amount of time to find their way through.

“This has to be it, right?” Anode asked, gesturing to the large, decorated pedestal in the middle of the room she found herself in. “This is _the_ most interesting thing we’ve seen in ages. Actually, this is the _only_ thing we’ve seen in ages that hasn’t been rocks, plants, or each other.

Feeling the weight lift from her back, Anode heard the distinctive noise of Lug’s transformation sequence behind her. “Also, it matches the description we were given of where to put that back at.” She added, standing beside Lug as she watched her produce the relic from her subspace.

“We should return this and then get out of here. I don’t like this place.” Lug murmured, handing the relic to Anode.

“It’ll be fiiiine. If traps and stuff get sprung when we _take_ things, then realistically we should be fine if _returning_ something.” Anode took a few steps into the room, walking right up to the pedestal. High vaulted ceilings and carvings into the stone floor meant _someone_ had to have been there at some point, but the amount of rubble and plant life growing through the stone meant that whoever last cared for this place hadn’t been there in a _long_ time. The pedestal had a round indentation in the top that was clearly the place where the relic was supposed to go.

“I’m... not sure that’s sound reasoning.”

“Watch. We’ll be fine, I promise.” And with that, Anode dropped the relic into its proper place.

As soon as the relic settled into its spot, Anode could tell that she had been wrong and that something bad was indeed happening. She was sure Lug knew it too by the panicked look on her face. The relic had locked into place on the pedestal as the whole thing began to glow ominously before slowly lowering into the floor. Light trickled its way from the pedestal, along the carvings on the floor underneath them, to the walls of the room and then to the ceiling. 

It was then that a loud rumbling started to emanate from the walls and the ceiling began to _move._

That wasn't good.

" _Anode!_ " Lug shouted loud enough that her voice echoed, even with the loud rumbling of stuff falling apart around them.

Anode wasted no time sprinting for the door as bits and pieces of stone rained down from the rapidly crumbling ceiling above. She worried that the falling rubble was going to block off her and Lug's paths from the door and trap them inside. She was _not_ about to let that happen.

Bracing herself for impact and ignoring Lug's cries of shock, Anode grabbed Lug as she sprinted past and broke into a slide, ignoring the unpleasant feeling as she slid under the rapidly disappearing doorway.

Hearing the loud _thud_ of what was presumably the ceiling crashing into the floor told Anode that her and Lug were safe as best, still alive at the very least. She found herself hugging her conjunx a little tighter to herself as the dust settled around them.

They stayed like that for a moment, Anode holding Lug close to her as her processor caught up with the fact that they had survived and were decidedly _not_ now suddenly flattened on the floor of some old dusty ruins that had just tried to kill them. Also maybe she just liked getting to hold her wife after near death experiences, it’s not like anyone could blame her.

After a little bit longer, Anode broke the silence. “See? I told you we’d be fine.”

Lug pushed herself back enough from Anode’s chest to look her up and down. “I wouldn’t call this ‘Fine’. I’d call this ‘We just barely survived getting flattened.’” She sounded skeptical. Then, with concern. “You’re scratched up pretty bad. Are you hurt?”

Anode let out a small laugh. “Like I said, we’re fine and I’m fine. It’s nothing that a bit of polish won’t fix. We’re both alive and uninjured, aren’t we?”

Lug grumbled something quiet enough that Anode couldn’t hear. “I was still right that the pedestal was bad news.”

“I never said you weren’t.” Anode replied with a knowing smile, standing up before helping Lug up off the ground as well. Looking around, she reset her optics a few times, adjusting to the bright light from the setting sun filtering through the gaps of rock compared to the darkness of the ruins they had just been in. The geometric labyrinth… looked different from when they had entered the ruins.

Entirely different.

Uh oh.

"Uh.. Lug? Dearest light of my life? My beautiful conjunx who I cherish?"

Lug's voice from behind her wasn't angry. She was rarely angry. She _did_ however have That Tone she used when she knew Anode was about to give her bad news. "What now?"

"Does… any of this look familiar to you?” Anode gestured to the rock walls and overhangs around her. She watched as Lug looked at her surroundings, then back at her, now with an increasingly exasperated expression.

"We're lost, aren't we?"

"Maybe?"

Lug sighed, sounding deeply tired. "Well. We might as well settle down here for the night. I don't wanna risk us getting even more lost."

\--

Setting up a makeshift camp didn't take long. Anode had gone off to gather materials for a fire that could be used both for light and to ward off any potential dangers that might exist in the labyrinth while Lug attempted to split what little rations she had brought with her between the both of them. After setting up the fire and adding enough tinder to make sure it would burn for the night, they refueled as much as they could.

Time passed slowly when you didn't have much to do. This was something Anode was all too aware of. She and Lug had spent most of the night so far talking about anything they could think about, eventually devolving into playing word games to pass the time. Currently, the goal of their game was to start off with a mundane sentence and spin it into the most outlandish story they could before they ran out of ideas. Lug's previous turn had started with an accountant named Brickbreak leaving work for the day and had ended with a volcano erupting an infestation of scraplets. Anode was currently working off of "a loud smoke alarm in a shop bothering everyone who walks by" as she idly stacked stones around her into varying patterns. She was about to ask Lug to suggest a name when she realised Lug was shivering.

Anode scooted over towards Lug, scooping her up into her lap and wrapping her arms around her in one fell swoop. Lug looked up at her with a questioning gaze. "You looked cold." She offered before continuing on with her story.

After a while, Anode found herself looking up at the sky while the fire nearby crackled softly as she spun her tale. It wasn't often they got to have calm moments off in the wilderness like this, even if they were _technically_ lost in a labyrinth the size of an entire planet. It was nice to not be running for your life from someone or something.

It was nice to have a peaceful moment every once in a while.

A particularly loud pop from the fire startled Anode from her thoughts. The fire was still burning strong, if growing a bit smaller. She turned her attention to Lug, who she now realised had long since fallen asleep on top of her. Lug's expression was totally serene, relaxed even. It was a reassuring sight compared to how exhausted she had seemed earlier. 

She had to admit, it was times like this that she sometimes felt a little bad that their lives were constantly full of life-threatening experiences. Lug deserved to be able to relax. Anode knew the Lug was happy with her and sometimes enjoyed their adventures as much as Anode did, but she also knew that Lug enjoyed _not_ doing jobs that required Maybe Almost Dying. 

Something like this seemed to be a nice compromise. Just little hints of danger, lots of adventure, and nice moments to relax like this.

Maybe they should have adventures like this more often.


End file.
